Referring to FIG. 1, a repeater system 10 is shown implementing a port control section 12 and a port control section 14 that can each operate at different speeds. The circuit 10 also comprises a repeater core 16 and a repeater core 17. The repeater core 16 is shown running at 10 Mbits per second and the repeater core 17 is shown running at 100 Mbits per second. The port control section 12 is shown having a speed select block 18, a multiplexer/select block 20 and a port 22. The port control section 14 is shown having a multiplexer/select block 32, a speed select block 34 and a port 36. A basic repeater segment (sometimes referred to as a repeater) comprises one of the repeater cores 16 or 17 and two or more of the ports 20 and 22. The multiplexer/select block 20 connects the port 22 to either the repeater core 16 or the repeater core 17. The speed select block 18 determines the speed of the port 22 and, by providing a signal to the multiplexer/select circuit 20, connects the port 22 to the repeater core 16 or the repeater core 17, whichever is operating at the appropriate speed. The speed select block 34 provides a similar function to the speed select block 18 by providing a signal to the multiplexer/select circuit 32 to connect the port 36 to the repeater core 16 or the repeater core 17, whichever is operating at the appropriate speed. For example, if the port 22 operates at 10 Mbits per second, the multiplexer/select circuit 20 will connect the port 22 to the repeater core 16, which is operating at 10 Mbits per second. Conversely, if the port 22 can operate at 100 Mbits per second, the multiplexer/select circuit 20 will connect the port 22 to the repeater core 17, which is operating at 100 Mbits per second. While the particular repeater cores 16 and 17 may run at different speeds from each other, they generally have a fixed speed that does not vary.
If all of the ports are required to run at a single speed, load balancing is not generally possible since the ports will be configured to the same repeater core 16 or 17. The number of repeater cores 16 and 17 may vary according to the configuration of the particular network.